51 Hurt, 138 Held as Police Tear Gas May Day Protesters in Istanbul

Riot police in Istanbul used water cannon and tear gas Thursday against thousands of protesters who tried to defy a May Day ban on demonstrations, injuring at least 50 people.

After a final warning, hundreds of riot police moved on the crowd seeking to breach the barricades leading to Taksim Square, declared off limits to Labour Day demonstrators as the epicenter of anti-government protests in recent months.

Smoke rose above the Besiktas district, home to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office, following the police charge.

The Progressive Lawyers Association said at least 51 people were injured and 138 detained near the symbolic square and elsewhere across the city as police clashed with flag-waving and balaclava-wearing protesters hurling stones and Molotov cocktails.

In the capital Ankara, police fired volleys of tear gas and jets of water on hundreds of protesters trying to march to the Kizilay Square, also declared off limits.

In Istanbul's Besiktas, Mahmut Tanal, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People's Party was beaten by police who tried to pushed him away from a water cannon truck.

"This is a picture that you can only see in countries which are governed by dictator regimes," Tanal told Agence France Presse, vowing to sue both Erdogan and the interior minister over the incident. 

A reported 40,000 police officers as well as dozens of water cannon trucks and armored vehicles were deployed throughout Istanbul, with roughly half that number drafted into the center to cordon off all the avenues, streets and alleys around the square. 

Public transport was paralyzed in the sprawling city of more than 13 million as the authorities blocked roads, canceled ferry services and closed metro stations in a bid to cope with two crowds of demonstrators on either side of the Bosphorus.

"Everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance," chanted echoing a chant often heard during the huge anti-government protests that swept the country in June last year.

"Hand in hand against fascism." 

Erdogan warned protesters last week to "give up hopes" of meeting on Taksim and suggested another venue on the outskirts of Istanbul, but activists and leftist unions rejected the idea and vowed to ignore the ban. 

And Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu said Wednesday the ban was based on intelligence reports indicating "illegal terrorist groups" were planning unrest at Taksim. 

The TURK-IS labor confederation was however allowed access to the square to lay wreaths in memory of 34 people killed during a 1977 May Day protest when unknown gunmen fired on a peaceful crowd. 

The union organized another May Day rally in Istanbul, in Kadikoy Square on the Asian side of the city. 

"May Day is the celebration of the people and workers. We will not give up even if it means sacrificing our lives," said 29-year-old Sema Kalin, a member of the Communist Party Of Turkey. "Tayyip should be afraid of us." 

Taksim Square was only opened to May Day rallies in 2009, ending a three-decade ban brought on by the 1977 tragedy. 

Parliament reinstated May Day as a national holiday in 2009 and decided to fully open the square to celebrations, only to ban it again last year citing renovation work. 

Violent protests between police and May Day protesters last year were followed weeks later by a wave of nationwide protests that snowballed into one of the biggest challenges to Erdogan's 11-year rule.

Eight people died and 8,000 injured when police cracked down heavily on a peaceful campaign to save Istanbul's Gezi Park -- adjacent to Taksim -- from redevelopment, earning Turkey a harsh rebuke from its Western allies.  

Sporadic protests have continued against controversial measures taken by Erdogan in response to a massive corruption scandal implicating key government allies, including an Internet crackdown that saw Twitter banned for two weeks. 

Despite the protests, the corruption scandal and Erdogan's perceived authoritarianism, the premier's AKP party scored a resounding victory in March 30 local elections, winning 45 percent of the vote.